BOEM offers 22 million acres in Gulf of Mexico August lease sale

WASHINGTON -- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced Thursday that the bureau will offer approximately 21.9 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.

Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 246, to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Aug. 19, will be the eighth offshore sale under the Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (Five Year Program). This sale builds on the first seven sales in the current Five Year Program, which offered more than 60 million acres and netted nearly $2.9 billion for American taxpayers.

Sale 246 will include approximately 4,083 blocks, covering roughly 21.9 million acres, located from nine to 250 nautical miles offshore, in water depths ranging from 16 ft to more than 10,975 ft.

“The Gulf of Mexico is an important part of the Administration’s energy strategy,” said Hopper. “The region holds vital energy resources that can continue to generate jobs and spur economic opportunities for Gulf producing states, as well as further reduce the Nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”